Originally built as a World War II concrete coastal gun battery for two 6" T2-M1 rapid fire guns mounted on M4 Shielded Barbette Carriages (SBC) placed on either side of an earth covered reinforced concrete magazine and support structure. Power was supplied by internal generators and commercial power. The battery was conditionally accepted on 8 Sep 1944 with the carriages in place but without any gun tubes. The gun tubes were never delivered and the battery was never operational.

A six story square concrete observation tower was built for this battery to house the BC station and operations functions. The top two floors were to contain a command post and an operations post. The tower was placed about 250' to the left of gun emplacement #2. The tower was accepted for service on 19 May 1943 at a cost of $ 10,630.00.

These 6" World War II coastal gun batteries were designed to replace obsolete Endicott Period Batteries. Of the 87 planned only 45 were completed and many of those were not completed until late in the war (1944-1945).

The 6" guns fired a 105 pound armor-piercing projectile with a range of over 15 miles at a rate of up to 5 rounds per minute. The gun crews were protected by a thick shield around the gun. Only six of these guns remain in the world, two at Fort Columbia in Battery 246, two at Fort Pickens in Battery 234, and two at Fort McAndrew in Battery 282 in Argentia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.